Approximately 80 percent of the gas in the pipeline that passes through parts of Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, Union and Snyder counties will go to the generating plant Panda Power Funds is converting from coal to gas.

The Dallas, Texas, company is building the 1,124 megawatt plant on the site of a 65-year-old, 400 megawatt coal-powered plant that Sunbury Generation closed in 2014.

Construction is about 32 percent complete with all the turbines and generators set on foundations, Panda spokesman Bill Pentak said.

The PPL interconnection is complete, construction of the administration/warehouse building has started and work on the cooling tower is progressing, he said.

The project is on schedule with commissioning activities expected to begin in the second quarter of next year and the plant operational in early 2018, he said.